"The Petrol Pump" (Italo Calvino)
The "Petrol Pump" is a short story published in 1974 about gas pricing spiraling out of control. The story begins with the narrator regretting being unable to refuel his car as the filling station is closed. Then he digresses from that topic, talking about the environment and the oil statement — how two million tons of crude are ripped from the Earth's crust every year. The narrator also talks about the warnings they are getting from the gauges about having tank reserves and how the underground global reserves cannot be reserved for more than twenty years. However, the person didn't seem to care about it but was worried about his convenience. It also depicted the ubiquity of oil everywhere and its scarcity regardless of human needs.
In "The Petrol Pump," Italo Calvino tries to depict the overarching human greed over available natural resources. In the story, the narrator plays a role in such a way as to show our careless daily life, knowing the outcome of our actions. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is frustrated about not being able to fuel his car. He says, “The gauge has been warning me for quite a while that the tank is in reserve. They have been warning us for quite a while that underground global reserves can’t last more than twenty years or so. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, as usual, I’ve been irresponsible” (Calvino 170). Even though he has heard the message, he chooses to be irresponsible. This explains how humans are very selfish and wouldn’t be concerned about things until they experience hardship in real time.
The story continues talking about our dependence on oils. Starting with oil production, energy, technology, and advanced things were fueled by oil. Although the oils are running out, human competition for oil isn't stopping. People acknowledge the harm and then disregard it, continuing their daily life. At the end of the story, the narrator says, “The short time granted me is over: the flow stops, the pump is still, the embrace is broken off. There’s a deep silence as if all engines everywhere had ceased their firing and wheeling life of the human race has stopped" (Calvino 175). Even though he realized at the end, there’s nothing to do about the consequences that already occurred. This idea clearly explains how we, humans, are responsible for our actions.
In conclusion, the author presented the impacts of human greed through storytelling. It highlighted the unseen production of oil production and how we are overusing the resources not acknowledging our future. The story overall gives us a sense of our consequences and urges us to take action to protect our resources.
Bibliography:
Calvino, Italo. “The Petrol Pump.” Numbers In The Dark and Other Stories, translated from Italian by Tim Parks, Vintage International, New York, 1993.
Kennedy, Patrick. “All about Italian Fiction Writer Italo Calvino.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 6 Jan. 2020, https://www.thoughtco.com/italo-calvino-author-profile-2207696.
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